


Define and Conquer

by Omnicat



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-06
Updated: 2012-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicat/pseuds/Omnicat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Words are seldom unambiguous in meaning. Wufei and Relena argue a little semantics, a lot of philosophy, and bond by butting heads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Define and Conquer

"So you’re a martial artist." a voice said.

Wufei lowered his extended foot to the ground. In the doorway stood Relena Darlian, a slight smile on her face and a large bundle of papers in her arms.

"What school?" she asked.

He told her. He looked her up and down, taking in the smooth paleness of her hands and the quality of her suit. "You have no idea what that means, do you?"

"No." Her smile became wider, more open. "But I’d be willing to learn. It seems we’ve never gotten to know each other."

She stepped onto the floor and extended her hand. He stared at it for a long moment.

Not too long ago, this girl had been drugged, abducted, and used as a human shield in a megalomaniac’s bid at world domination. She and he had never spoken to each other, but he knew all about her ideals, the hopes and dreams she had for the world, the goal she had set herself in life.

He knew because if he had not been stopped, what he did would have destroyed it all.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked her.

"Chang Wufei." she said, with perfect inflection. "A gundam pilot. I’ve seen you around on Peacemillion. For a while there, I thought we’d lost you to the dark side."

She was still smiling; it was a joke. An attempt at breaking the ice, in full knowledge of what he had done. Wufei looked into her unfathomable blue eyes, at the volume of words she clutched to her chest, and bowed, hands held stiffly at his sides.

Perhaps it was the war, or maybe he simply hadn’t left for boarding school early enough, but Meilan’s words had shown themselves to be true; he practiced the art of combat because that was the way of their clan, the blood and bones of their culture, and the only way he knew how to live was by fighting. Friendship with Relena Darlian, born a princess of the Peacecraft line of the Sank Kingdom, had about the same chance as a snow storm forming in a volcano.

Wufei walked away without another word.

 

"There’s no-one else left. You’re the last one."

She sounded properly astonished, but the nerve of her still made Wufei feel like he’d just bitten himself in the tongue. He swallowed down the unpalatable lump that was his last bite of hors-d’euvre and set the plate down on a table. "Been reading up on the clan behind my back, have you?"

"I want to know the people who fought so hard for this peace I hold in my hands."

Without the least hint of shame, she settled beside him against the wall, her hands wrapped around her bare elbows. He threw one glance at her from the corner of his eye before looking away resolutely.

"How can I do it justice if I don’t know why they fought, what they fought for?"

_Justice..._

Remembering endless hours of training - in the near-instant dawn of the old colony, in the dewy fields around the school, beside Nataku’s giant gundanium form, in the echoing presence of his new Preventor comrades - he breathed deeply and channeled the heat of his temper.

"I fight in pursuit of justice. I fight because that is the way of our people, and as I was never myself of the Long blood, their fighting spirit is the only thing that remains of my clan."

There was a long silence as they watched her colleagues mingle, some cheerful, some gravely serious, while his exchanged covert signals from other shadowed corners of the room.

When she spoke next, it was in a softer voice, compassionate and wistful. "I understand. It was the same for me when I found out my heritage as a Peacecraft. But Wufei..." Her hesitation pulled his eyes back to her downcast face. "They’re dead. Mine _and_ yours."

_‘Maybe it’s time you forgot Nataku.’_

It was as infuriating now as it had been then.

Anger he could not hide flared up inside him, a painful ember of rage in his gut, ready to ignite at the least breath of provocation.

"And I suppose now you’re going to tell me I should forget about them." he said, almost growling. "Just like all of Earth and space should just forget about their past _grudges_ and play nice together."

Relena took him aback: "No."

For the first time that evening, they looked each other straight in the eye. Her expression was cool but adamant. Wufei recognized the look from the never-ending stream of public addresses she had held over the past months. This face had won over millions of people.

"In our memories lie our lessons. To forget would mean to undo everything we’ve fought for. But we mustn’t become trapped in the past. We must move forward with the lessons we’ve learned and grow, so that we won’t make the same mistakes again."

Millions of people.

He huffed. "Pretty words. As to be expected from a politician. I wouldn’t expect you to understand what it’s like to be a fighter."

"You think I don’t understand what it is to fight because I’m a politician?"

"I think a pacifist shouldn’t pretend to understand a warrior."

Again, she surprised him. "Likewise."

She met his wide eyes with a smirk before becoming serious. "Maybe I’ve just never been a very good pacifist, but if there is anything Mariemeia made me realise, it is that even when I tried to uphold my family’s pacifist ideals, I was _fighting_. But I don’t use guns or mobile suits or my fists. Instead I use words: pacifism is my offense. Violence is pointless and destructive and must only ever be used in defense against other violence."

"Maybe in a perfect world."

"In a perfect world, yes. But what else is there for humans to strive for other than the closest we can get to perfection?" She sounded almost like Treize. "If we settled for anything less, if we strove to save some but allowed others to still suffer and die needlessly, we might as well not even try."

Wufei bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"My people tried and paid for their efforts with their lives. They failed, but their way was one of honour and integrity. To discard their legacy as the last one remaining would be no better than giving up."

Relena bowed her head in respect.

 

She was back again, watching him. This time she was dressed as a civilian.

"You never got to tell me what you fight _for_."

He stopped, held his stance, said slowly and clearly "I fight because it is the way of my people.", and resumed.

"So you fight for the sake of fighting?"

Wufei looked at her sideways. When Meilan was the one spouting the words he now used, he had asked her the same thing, the utter pointlessness of it all as clear as day to him. But she had died willingly, eagerly, for her senseless notions of justice and her warrior’s way, and how could something worth such a sacrifice be empty? So he had set out to find that elusive meaning and purpose which Meilan had grasped so easily.

"An answer isn’t too much to ask for, is it?" Relena suddenly said, and Wufei realised he must have drifted off into thought. "You’ve chosen to continue your clan’s ways; you should live up to the responsibilities that come with it."

 _"Yes."_ he finally answered, annoyed at the both of them. To this day, he still was not sure he had found what Meilan tried to show him. "I fight because the martial arts are the way I live, the path my ancestors walked. Because the arts of combat hold the key to justice and honour and integrity."

"But what if you have no more battles to fight?" was her immediate retort.

"Then I find a new cause worth fighting for." was his.

"Wouldn’t you even stop to celebrate your victory and settle down?" she asked, wandering into the room and absently waving around her hand. "Will you really keep seeking new battles just so you can keep living your life fighting?"

"We do not live in a perfect world. I will not stop fighting until I have eliminated all evils and righted all wrongs." He paused, looking her dead in the eye. "Both in the world around me and inside myself."

She met his gaze unflinchingly.

"I do not doubt the integrity of your intentions. But don’t you think it’s selfish to force your ways of fighting onto others when it brings so much suffering?" There was an air of honest, unprejudiced and unjudgemental interest about her that made what would have been a harsh accusation from anyone else’s mouth a harmless, almost accepting question. "There are other ways, ways that do not cause the pain and sorrow battle does."

Wufei looked at her for a long moment before walking away. When he returned, he brought a spare gi. "Put this on and tie your hair back. I’ll show you."

Wufei allowed himself a small smile when she gladly did as instructed and returned in the traditional garb of a martial artist.

"Just as one’s battle can lead along the path of pacifism, so too are the martial arts not defined by, or even aimed toward, violence. Discipline, balance, wisdom - those are a warrior’s true guides to integrity..."

**Author's Note:**

> Comments on older fics will ALWAYS remain welcome.


End file.
